


A story of boy meets girl

by daydreamwithyou



Series: BAU does Blind Dates [2]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Blind Date, F/M, First Date, Fluff, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24061126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydreamwithyou/pseuds/daydreamwithyou
Summary: Spencer and (y/n) have little to no expectations for their blind date, but their mutual friend Penelope seems to think they can be good together so they’ll just have to find out while they visit the U.S. Botanic Garden.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Series: BAU does Blind Dates [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735849
Kudos: 52





	A story of boy meets girl

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr as a part of my "BAU does blind dates" series, there's a second part of this that I've been slowly writing since March so I'm sure someday I'll finish it and post it.

Penelope was out shopping with her friend y/n, they had met in a hand embroidery class a few months ago, (y/n) was a salvation for Penelope, she was still adjusting to her new job, and her best friends (and boyfriend) were extremely busy fighting bad guys so having her made Penelope feel less lonely. (y/n) on her part wasn’t very social, she got along with her coworkers and most of her close friends were back in her hometown, so for her, Penelope also was a gift from her lucky stars. 

“What’s got you smiling so big Penelope?” (y/n) asked while they were at a vintage dress store.

“Luke’s coming home from a case today, they wrapped the case sooner than they thought” She showed the text message to her friend.

“That’s great, hopefully he won’t get another case during the weekend” 

“I hope so, I really want to spend some days with him without stressing about his safety and the rest of my friend’s safety as well” Penelope sighed, the team have been away many days in some difficult cases that had her nerves on the edge.

“You will, I’m sure you’ll have a great weekend together.” (y/n) smiled at her.

“What about you, huh? What are your plans for the weekend? Any hot date?” (y/n) laughed.

“Ha! No, just me, my plants and comfort food” She sighed.

“Hey, you’re young, you have more than enough time to find someone” Penelope knew she had been struggling with her personal life. Or rather the lack of it.

“Can you call my mom and tell her that too? She has baby fever, or grandchildren fever, I don’t even know how to call it.” She placed of her hands in her face getting anxious just thinking about it.

“What about you? Do you pressure yourself to be in a relationship? To have kids?” Penelope carefully asked.

“Well… I did before, all my friends getting married and me just being the single one, I felt like I needed someone but then I just let it go, and that’s the way it’s been my whole life, everyone with their boyfriends, girlfriends and me, the independent woman that moved half across the country from her family and friends to work in a place that I loved”

“I understand, trust me, I completely understand the need to find someone just so you stop being the single friend but sometimes you just gotta let it happen.”

“I know, I know but I can’t even remember the last date I had!”

That’s when Penelope had an idea.

“How would you feel about a blind date?” (y/n) looked at her with an amused face.

“You know me, I’m too shy and awkward to go on blind dates”

“Let me try, I can be a really good matchmaker, please?” (y/n) thought about it, Penelope had been playing with an idea in the back of her mind for a few weeks, she even talked to Luke about and he supported the idea so she thought she might go through it.

The next thing (y/n) knew, was that she had a date for Saturday with one of Penelope’s friends, she was too nervous, but Penelope and even Luke reassured her that she’d be fine.

“Uhm, excuse me, are you (y/n) (y/l/n)?” A tall guy with light brown hair asked her.

“Yeah, you must be Spencer, Spencer Reid” Both of them had shy smiles on their faces, hoping their mutual friend was right and they could have a nice day.

“Shall we go in?” He signaled to the entrance of the United States Botanic Garden.

Once they started to walk through the gardens of the USBG, they realized they hadn’t talked at all.

“You chose a beautiful place, (y/n)” Spencer said while he looked around and put his hands in the pockets of his pants.

“Thank you, have you been here before?” She asked in a low voice, feeling really awkward.

“Just once, many years ago, I brought my mom” He remembered fondly that one time her mom had visited him and the only thing she wanted to do was visit the USBG.

“That’s amazing, I want to bring my mom here but she haven’t visited me” She was feeling more relaxed.

“Oh, where does she live?”

“California, she lives there with my dad, and well, all my family and friends are there” Spencer could see the sadness in her eyes.

“How long it’s been since you moved?”

“A year and I’ve seen them, I fly for Christmas and Thanksgiving but I’m not the most social and outgoing person so it’s been a little tough on me” She confessed and he smiled sympathetically.

“I understand, I don’t have many friends beside my team, and Penelope, she changed her job but yeah, it’s just them” He awkwardly explained.

“Introvert life, I get it” So far (y/n) was feeling more at ease with this nice and good looking stranger. “I think that’s why Penelope came up with this idea” 

“Yeah, maybe that was it” He looked at her and smiled, and suddenly his mind went blank, he didn’t know what to talk about so he did one of the things he did best: telling facts “The story about this place is quite interesting, the first idea for its creation goes back as far as 1796, botanical studies started to be more prominent during the eighteenth century but the creation of it officially started in 1820...” 

Spencer started to quote almost the entirety of a book he had read about the U.S. Botanic Garden, and as they walked through it and (y/n) listened fascinated by the way he talked. Once or twice she had made her own comments about what she knew and soon enough they were comfortable with each other.

Once they entered the Tropic exhibit, (y/n)’s face lit up, Spencer noticed that and stopped talking for a second.

“This is my favorite part of the whole place, I love seeing all kinds of greens and their contrast, also here they have calatheas which are my one of my favorites” Spencer smiled as he listened to her.

“Ah, calatheas, some people refer to them as a family of plants when in reality they are…” He was interrupted by an overly excited (y/n). 

“A genus of plants, they belong to the Marantaceae family, sorry, it’s just I really love this exhibit” She blushed.

“Oh, don’t worry, do you come often then?” She looked even more embarrassed, Spencer was not sure why.

“Uh, actually I work here” (y/n) confessed as she bit her lip.

“Really? Oh, wow, I never asked what you did, and what it is that you do?” He was pleasantly surprised. 

“I have a degree in Botany, I moved all the way from California to work here, today’s my day off obviously, but I always thought it would be nice to have a date here, it’s a place I know like the back of my hand and here I could have something to talk about” She was worried Spencer would think she was pathetic for wanting to have a date at her workplace instead he was worried he had been talking too much.

“Oh God, you love this place, you work here and I just told you things that you probably already knew, I am so sorry” It was his turn to blush.

“Don’t worry, I enjoyed listening to you, I knew some things but not all of them, and I just really liked knowing there is someone else that knows the history of this place, it was really nice” Being the awkward person she was, her face was now as red as a tomato.

Spencer only smiled at her and decided to look carefully at the plants, something (y/n) was grateful for, as she tried to regain her normal color.

“Come on, let’s go up to my favorite spot” Once they were there, Spencer understood why she liked that specific spot.

They looked down from the mezzanine and could see the beauty of the whole exhibit.

“What do you think?” She asked with a small smile.

“It’s beautiful, I don’t think I came up here before” He felt happy as to how the day was turning out, not only the whole place was a delight but the company of (y/n) was wonderful “Add some weeping angels statues and it would be even better” 

“Oh, and maybe a TARDIS” He turned to look at her, he was shocked she had caught the reference.

“Do you watch Doctor Who?” (y/n) looked at him and then back to the scene below them.

“No, I don’t” Spencer’s smile faded just a little, she was still great and he was hopeful they could go out again.

“Penelope does and she talks about it so much, once she did an embroidered TARDIS, and that’s why I got the reference” She played with the fabric of her blouse.

“I am really glad that Penelope thought about this” He said looking at her.

“Yeah, me too” She nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“Would you like to have coffee?” He dared to ask.

“Sure, when?” She replied while looking at him in awe, she couldn’t believe the date had gone far better than she had expected.

Spencer shrugged his shoulders and looked around “What about now?”

“Yeah, let’s go”

Once they were at the coffee and had ordered, they sat down close to a window.

“So what do you do at your job?” Spencer asked while sipping on his coffee.

“I am a part of the conservation team, but the past few months I’ve been more focused on coordinating activities and the creation of programs for visitors, and I love it, it’s different from what I thought I would do but I enjoy doing that” She held her mug tightly and Spencer sensed there was more to it.

“Was that the position you originally wanted?”

“No, I wanted to work with plants and only plants, but then the opportunity presented and I took it and loved it but my family thinks that I moved across the country for a job that’s not entirely related to my degree, and it’s pretty much a desk job which is not true, but I can’t seem to make them change their minds” (y/n) looked sad.

“Are you close with them?” 

“Very, moving here was by far the hardest decision I’ve ever made and I don’t regret it, but it’s been tough” She looked out the window and Spencer looked at her empathetically.

“I imagine this has been difficult but I’m sure you’re doing an amazing job, I’ll try to go more often and participate in the programs, I’m curious as what you and the USBG has to offer” (y/n) smiled and took a sip of her coffee.

“Thank you, Spencer, but enough about me, I don’t know much about you, I know you’re a profiler but I am unsure as to what a profiler does, care to elaborate on that?” 

Spencer nodded as he went on to what his job was about and (y/n) listened with amazement in her eyes, she knew the BAU chased down bad guys but she didn’t know exactly how they did it.

The stayed there, both of them drinking cup after cup of coffee, and talking about everything and anything, by the end of the afternoon, they both felt as if the had met each other for a lifetime. 

They both walk back to the metro station together and Spencer is feeling unsure as to how he could suggest seeing each other again but (y/n) beats him to it.

“Spencer, I really, really enjoyed today, thank you for coming”

“Of course, I also had a great time today”

“Should we do this again?” She bit her lip hopeful he would agree.

“Go the US Botanic Garden?”

“Oh, not necessarily, I meant go out, I could use some company and I enjoyed yours”

“Ok, yeah, yeah, I would love to see you again” He’s smile was so big his eyes squinted and she felt her heart beat faster.

“Ok, you got my number, right?”

“Yeah, I saved it when you texted me” He pulled out his phone and held it up as if to prove he wasn’t lying.

“Have a good night” She smiled and waved at him, both of them had to take the metro in different directions so she started walking towards the opposite of him.

“You too, (y/n)!” If anyone looked at Spencer they could see the heart eyes he had while seeing the girl walking away from him. 

As he was ready to start his way home, he felt a tap on his shoulder and as soon as he turned around he received a hug from (y/n).

“Bye, text me when you’re home” She whispered in his ear and pulled away to start her way once again.

He stood there watching her walk away, being unable to move, remembering to call Penelope the minute he got home to thank her a million times for setting them up.


End file.
